Severo Sarduy (1937–1993)

Firefly is written with the command of an accomplished veteran poet, the perversity of a Marais district rent boy and the unflinching gaze of a child. It is a nightmare, a scandal, a hellish bildungsroman of that very strange baby, Severo Sarduy. He sees the world as a little boy but lives it as a corruptible old queen. He witnesses things no child should ever see or know. Eventually, he is brought into the mud, literally.

Severo Sarduy, Cuban poet, one of the first of the revolution's intellectuals and art critics, was one of its most prominent citizens to die of AIDS. He went to Europe in 1960, at age 23, on a revolutionary scholarship to study in Madrid. When Spain expelled its Cubans in 1961, he did not return home but instead went to Paris where he lived until his death in 1993. He was considered a traitor by the Cuban government during this time. He never returned home though he did travel throughout Europe and to Africa, India and the United States.

Cocuyo (Firefly) was Sarduy's last novel (1990) and was published around the time he was working for Gallimard. This also is the time he tested positive for HIV.

Cocuyo. It translates to “firefly.” One look at a photograph of Sarduy with his round head, prominent ears and big eyes tells it all. Not exactly a handsome man, his full lips suggest more a female sensualist. His sister relates that all of his aunts' names, on his father's side, begin with the letter "C".

Of course, one need not read too much of this work to realize that this cannot be an even remotely faithful memoir. This is not Bukowski, Fallada, Lawrence or even Joyce. The events in this account are far too outlandish and symbolic. Burroughs comes to mind but Sarduy’s prose is much more beautiful. You want a writer who always finds the right word? Sarduy’s your man.

This is a work for lovers of language, poetry and hysterically funny evil. Let it roll over you. But don’t believe too much.… (mer)